Original feeding device for photocopying machine

ABSTRACT

An original feeding device for a photocopying machine in which a plurality of resilient rollers carried by a common shaft and disposed in parallel with an original inserting inlet rotate in the same direction with that of the original feed direction when the leading edge thereof passes the rollers. But the rollers are caused to rotate in the direction opposite to said first direction after the leading edge has passed the rollers, thereby preventing the trailing edge of the original from being wound by the rollers.

United States Patent l l l Inventor Kenzo Ariyama Tokyo, Japan Appl. No. 803,711 Filed Mar. 3, 1969 Patented Sept. 28, 1971 Assignee Kabushiki Kaisha Ricoh Tokyo, Japan Priority Mar. 6, 1968 Japan 43/141152 ORIGINAL FEEDING DEVICE lFOlR PHOTOCOPYING MACHINE 3 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

[1.8. CI 27l/57 Int. Cl B65h 7/06 Field of Search 27 H56, 57,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 584,073 6/1897 Dexter 271/57 3,108,801 10/1963 Van Dalen 271/57 3,202,144 8/1965 Nicholson ct al 74/203 X 3,279,787 10/1966 Niccoli 271/57 X Primary Examiner-Joseph Wegbreit Attorney-Burgess, Ryan and Hicks AllISIR/\(T'l: An original feeding device for a photocopying machine in which a plurality of resilient rollers carried by a common shaft and disposed in parallel with an original inserting inlet rotate in the same direction with that of the original leed direction when the leading edge thereof passes the rol lers. But the rollers are caused to rotate in the direction op posile to said first direction after the leading edge has passed the rollers, thereby preventing the trailing edge ol the original from being wound by the rollers.

ORIGINAL FEEDING DEVICE FOR PHOTOCOPYING MACHINE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a photocopying machine or the like and more particularly an original feeding device therefore.

Originals used in photocopying are various. Some are new and the others are old. Some have folds, creases, etc., and have a tendency to curl, and the others are folded completely into cylindrical form. Known is an original feeding device of the type in which in order to feed the original into the machine in the correctly extended state, resilient rollers are provided in the inlet of the machine so as to rotate these rollers in the same direction with the original feed direction. This device is very effective only when the leading edges of the original have folds or a tendency to curl so that the leading edge can be corrected. However, such device is ineffective or rather harmful because the trailing side edge of the original having folds and/or tendency to curl tends to be wound around these rollers which are normally rotating in the direction of the original feed direction so that the original is damaged and the copies are poor or unusable.

To remedy these defects, it has been required for an operator of photocopying machine to hold the trailing edge of the original until it is correctly fed into the inlet. But this operation is difficult when the original has a large size. Thus, photocopying operation is not efficient after all when the original having defects such as described above are used.

In view of the above, one of the primary objects of the IN- VENTION invention is to provide a novel original feeding device which can overcome the above described defects for use with a photocopying machine.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In brief, in order to eliminate the above defects encountered in the conventional device of the type described, the present invention provides a plurality of resilient rollers which rotate in the same direction with that of the original feed direction when the original is inserted and which are reversed to rotate in the direction opposite to the first mentioned direction when the original has been advanced beyond the rollers by a predetermined distance, thereby preventing these rollers from winding the trailing edge of the original.

To reverse the direction of rotation of these resilient rollers, a switch adapted to be actuated by the leading side edge of the original is provided so that upon actuation of this switch, an electromagnetic plunger is energized, thereby displacing or lifting a common shaft carrying the resilient rollers from its initial position. Therefore, the driving coupling between the common shaft and a drive shaft, which drives the common shaft, is reversed (so that the resilient rollers are rotated in the direction opposite to the first direction). Displacing or lifting the common shaft as described above serves to prevent the resilient rollers from imparting too much strong force to the original being fed.

The above and other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of one embodiment thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. I is a perspective view of an original feeding device of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view thereof;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view illustrating a driving coupling device between a drive shaft and a common shaft carrying a resilient roller according to the present invention; and

FIGS. 4 and 5 are explanatory views illustrating two different states of driving coupling system thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring particularly to FIGS. II and 2, a paper feeder plate 1 is a disposed forwardly of a copying section or station of a photocopying machine, and a guide plate 2 is depending toward the feed plate I and bent at a position slightly above the feed plate I inwardly so as to define a narrow paper-feeding space 3 between the guide plate 2 and the feeder plate 1. Below inwardly extending portion of the guide plate I are arranged a drive shaft 4 and a printer belt 5 lapped over the drive shaft 4. The tension side of the printing belt 5 is positioned substantially at the same level with that of the feed plate surface and is in parallel with the forwardly, that is horizontally extending portion of the guide plate 2 so as to define a narrow space therebetween. The printing belt 5 is driven by the drive shaft 4 in the direction indicated by the arrow.

At the curved portion of the guide plate 2 are provided a plurality of slots 7 which are equidistantly spaced apart from each other. In each of the slots 7 is disposed a resilient roller 8 which in turn is carried by a common shaft 9 disposed inwardly of the curved portion of the guide plate 2. Each of the resilient rollers 8 extends slightly beyond the surface of the guide plate 2 so as to contact directly with an original passing over the space between the feeder plate and the guide plate 2. The resilient roller 8 is preferably made of brush, rubber, sponge or resilient synthetic resin such as foamed polyu rethane. Reference numerals 6 and 6a. denote the original and a copying paper respectively. Reference numeral 12 designates a microswitch for reversing the direction of rotation of the resilient roller 8, the function of which will be described in more detail hereinafter.

Next referring to FIG. 3, the drive shaft 4 and the common shaft 9 are drivingly coupled to each other through friction wheels Ill and 10 carried by the drive and common shafts respectively. The common shaft 9 is supported by the friction wheel 11 of the drive shaft 4 through the friction wheel 10 and applies to the friction wheel the weight of the common shaft 9. In this state, the resilient rollers 8 are rotated in the same direction with that of the paper feed direction as indicated by the arrow. At one end of both ends of the common shaft 9 is disposed an electromagnetic plunger I3 which is controlled by the microswitch l2 and a switch I7. At common ends of the drive and common shafts 4 and 9 are formed enlarged diameter portions 14 and 15 which serve as pulleys for a belt 16.

Next the mode of operation will be described hereinafter. The superposed original and copying paper are inserted into the photocopying machine through the inlet thereof. In this case, the leading edge having a tendency to curl as shown in FIG. 2 can be straightened by the rollers 8 rotating in the direction indicated by the solid line arrow in FIG. 2, as the original passes below the rollers 8. The superposed original and copying paper actuate the microswitch 12, thereby energizing this switch. Therefore, the electromagnetic plunger 13 is actuated so that the common shaft 9 is moved upwardly. This plunger is shown as being disposed only at one end of the common shaft in FIG. 3, but, if required, at both ends of the common shaft are provided such plungers. When the common shaft 9 is supported upon the drive shaft through the friction wheels 10 and II by the weight of the common shaft itself, the belt 16 lapped over the enlarged, pulley portions 14 and I5 is slack as shown in FIG. 4 so that no force is imparted to these portions 14 and 15. Therefore, the drive and common shafts 4 and 9 are drivingly coupled to each other only through the friction wheels l0 and Ill independently of the belt I6. How ever, when the common shaft 9 is lifted up by the electromagnetic plunger 13 as described above, the driving coupling between the drive and common shafts 4 and 9 is disconnected since the friction wheels 10 and 11 are disengaged from each other and 'held in spaced-apart relation with each other. In this case, as shown in FIG. 5 the belt 16' is tensioned so that the drive and common shafts 4 and 9 are drivingly coupled with each other through the belt 16 this time. Therefore, the common shaft 9 and consequently the rollers 8 are caused to rotate in the reverse direction. The trailing edge having a tendency to curl in the original 6 is corrected or straightened by the rollers 8 which are rotating in the direction indicated by the broken line arrow while the original is advanced forward. Instead of providing the belt 16, an O-ring, a spring ring or the like may be used.

The switch 17 is provided for interrupting the operation of the device or deenergizing the device when not used.

The salient advantages accrued from the present invention are that any damage to the original and the malphotocopying can be prevented; since it is not necessary any longer to hold the original so as to correct the folded or curled portion thereof when advanced toward the copying section or station, next preparatory operation may be made during photocopying, thereby reducing the time required for photocopying and improving remarkedly the efficiency; and since the original can be advanced toward the copying station in the correctly extended and superposed state without any curl, folds, creases and so on which will inevitably cause poor and unusable copies, the operator is much relieved from the mental fatigue experienced in the conventional photocopying machine.

The present invention has been so far described in detail with particular reference to one preferred embodiment thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected without departing from the true spirit of the present invention as described hereinabove and as defined in the appended claims.

lclaim:

l. Feeding device for superposed original and copying paper unit in a photocopying machine, comprising:

a horizontally positioned feed plate superposed unit to move thereover in a downstream feed direction;

a guide plate positioned above said feed plate and having a horizontal part defining with said guide plate a feed inlet;

a first shaft positioned above said feed plate;

a plurality of resilient rollers mounted to be continuously rotated by said first shaft and having their lower peripheries in contact with the original;

a second shaft positioned below said feed plate;

means connecting said first and second shafts providing for driving said first shaft by said second shaft in either direction;

said connecting means comprising a pair of directly connectable rotary elements, each rotary element being fixedly mounted respectively on one of said shafts, and said elements having peripheral contact for frictional rotation together when said superposed unit is initially fed into said inlet thereby driving said rollers with their lower peripheries moving in the feed direction;

detecting means located a predetermined distance downstream of said resilient rollers and adapted to be operated by a leading edge of said superposed unit;

said connecting means further comprising an endless belt looped around said first and second shafts, said belt positioned in slack position when said elements are connected together for frictional rotation and;

moving means actuated by operation of said detecting means to move said shafts further apart thereby separating said rotary elements and simultaneously tightening said belt to drive said first shaft and resilient rollers so that their lower peripheries move reverse to the feed direction to connect a trailing edge of said superposed unit.

2. Feeding device according to claim 4 in which said detecting means comprises an electrical switch, and said moving means comprises an electromagnetic plunger actuated by said switch to lift said first shaft to separate said rotary elements.

3. Feeding device according to claim I, in which a pair of pul ley portions are respectively formed on said first and second shafts, and said belt is looped around said pulley portions to slidable thereon when said rotary elements are frictionally engaged.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. ,8 Dated September 28, 1971 InventorCE) Kenzo Ariyama It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 1, line 32, replace "INVENTION" by present Column 4, line 35, after "to" insert be (SEAL) Attest:

EIDWARD M.FLETGHER,JR. ROBERT GOTTSGHALK Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents Case 1770-66 USCOMM-DC COSTS-P69 RM PO-IOSD (10-65) a uvs. GOVERNMENT vrmmuo OFFICE: 1969 o-3es-ss4 

1. Feeding device for superposed original and copying paper unit in a photocopying machine, comprising: a horizontally positioned feed plate superposed unit to move thereover in a downstream feed direction; a guide plate positioned above said feed plate and having a horizontal part defining with said guide plate a feed inlet; a first shaft positioned above said feed plate; a plurality of resilient rollers mounted to be continuously rotated by said first shaft and having their lower peripheries in contact with the original; a second shaft positioned below said feed plate; means connecting said first and second shafts providing for driving said first shaft by said second shaft in either direction; said connecting means comprising a pair of directly connectable rotary elements, each rotary element being fixedly mounted respectively on one of said shafts, and said elements having peripheral contact for frictional rotation together when said superposed unit is initially fed into said inlet thereby driving said rollers with their lower peripheries moving in the feed direction; detecting means located a predetermined distance downstream of said resilient rollers and adapted to be operated by a leading edge of said superposed unit; said connecting means further comprising an endlEss belt looped around said first and second shafts, said belt positioned in slack position when said elements are connected together for frictional rotation and; moving means actuated by operation of said detecting means to move said shafts further apart thereby separating said rotary elements and simultaneously tightening said belt to drive said first shaft and resilient rollers so that their lower peripheries move reverse to the feed direction to contact a trailing edge of said superposed unit.
 2. Feeding device according to claim 4 in which said detecting means comprises an electrical switch, and said moving means comprises an electromagnetic plunger actuated by said switch to lift said first shaft to separate said rotary elements.
 4. Feeding device according to claim 1, in which a pair of pulley portions are respectively formed on said first and second shafts, and said belt is looped around said pulley portions to slidable thereon when said rotary elements are frictionally engaged. 